Thea Behrman deep dives into Estuary Festival 2025
2025 sees the third edition of Estuary Festival, which this time explores a theme of ‘Vessels’ throughout its events. There is a host of diverse activities being planned for later this month and we were delighted to get the chance to chat with Artistic Director and CEO Thea Behrman to find out all about it.
Hi Thea, and thank you so much for taking time to tell us about this amazing festival. This is the third time it’s been running – can you tell us how it came about, and the audiences it serves?
Estuary Festival began back in 2016 as a project in response to the Thames Estuary. The programme is about responding to and embracing the entire Thames Estuary, which is about 104 miles of coastline – this includes marshes, mudflats, seaside towns as well as stunning nature reserves, piers, ports and tidal pools! Back in 2016, Colette Bailey was artistic director at arts organisation Metal in Southend – artists were coming together and asking what could be done to respond to this remarkable place; somewhere that has been deeply inspiring for artists for hundreds of years (something to do with the tidal forces I think!). The Thames Estuary is such an inspiring place for artists to work, as it’s a place that is always in transition, with sea meeting river, nature intertwined with industry – as well as a powerful point of departure and arrival.
In those early days there wasn’t really anything in terms of public arts programming that drew people together across the Estuary, so it was unique in that respect too. Estuary Festival has grown significantly from that starting point, with contributions from countless artists, partners, audiences and participants. It’s now transitioned from being a project into an independent non-profit organisation, and we are now we are about to deliver the third edition. I should point out that it takes four years to pull each festival together (a bit like the Olympics!) because it’s so epic and unusual for a festival to embrace such an expansive area.
Our focus is always about how best we can showcase and tell the stories of the places and people of the Thames Estuary. The works themselves are produced in close exchange with Estuary people to reflect the complexity of lives lived in the Estuary. We also have a dynamic relationship with London and beyond, as it’s so easy to hop on a train we find that our programmes do attract audiences from much further afield too which is great.
So the theme for this year is ‘Vessels’. What does that entail?
The concept for Estuary 2025 ‘Vessels’ emerged through our deep engagement work across the Thames Estuary, and I have to give full credit to the brilliant ‘Vessels’ theme to the fantastic artist and curator Pryle Behrman (who is my husband too!) The idea emerged following many conversations with local people and finding that there was increasingly a disconnect to the tidal forces of the Thames Estuary. Even living within a stone’s throw of the water’s edge you can be completely unaware of having the Thames Estuary on your doorstep for many complex reasons. The ‘Vessels’ theme is a radical response to that. It’s about thinking beyond the boats and enormous ships that come in and out of the Thames Estuary, to consider our bodies as vessels, the stories and art that we create as holders of powerful ideas for the future. We’re thinking about the incredible biodiversity of the Estuary too – a Shrill Carder bee, or lugworm in the mud; what can we learn from the knowledge held by the beings of the Thames Estuary’s past, present and future?
Can you tell us about some of the performances that you have programmed?
We have so many incredible performances. She is a River is a world premiere by multi-disciplinary artist Nwando Ebizie who has created specially devised music, sound and movement piece telling the story of the river goddess Thamesis inside the stunning Tilbury Cruise Terminal on Windrush Day (22 June, 7.30pm). We have ANCHORED on 21 June at 9.45pm – Scarabeus Aerial Theatre company will be performing a newly devised work on the rigging of Light Vessel 21 at The Historic Dockyard Chatham which will be utterly spectacular. We also have SALT by the Arbonauts on 27 and 28 June: it’s a dance performance in a tidal pool on Canvey Island. We have live performances aboard boats to an abandoned island fort with Thought Forms, and Changing Tides aboard an historic Thames Sailing Barge!
You’ve also got some more interactive events on, such as story walks and installations. What about those?
Yes, that’s right! We have Call Me Back!, a huge touring art installation by Damilola Odusote that takes the form of a supersized 1990s phone box that can transport you to another dimension; we have A Circular and Never-ending Ritual of Love to the Estuary which is a guided walk and 3D sound experience by Nwando Ebizie to take you on a mythic journey connecting to the Estuary through a form of film soundtrack ‘score’. Submarine Consciousness artists Breakwater have produced a sound walk about the endangered cockle habitats at Hadleigh, South Essex, and Library of Lost Sounds restages the sound of a chimney stack being accidentally demolished a day early on its original site (now within Canvey Wick nature reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest).
As Artistic Director, how do you even begin to programme such a diverse range of events in such disparate locations?
The work is always guided by the places and the people of the Thames Estuary. Where we are based, conventional arts spaces such as art galleries or state-of-the-art concert halls are few and far between, so we take the work out into the landscape of the Thames Estuary, and the work itself is informed by that place. For this to happen it’s essential to have great partnerships with a huge range of organisations – with local authorities, the Environment Agency, ports and yacht clubs, as well as a local partners ranging from arts organisations to voluntary groups and schools. We have some really interesting funders too who have supported our work to take place in different locations, including Arts Council England ‘Place Partnership’ award and National Highways Designated Funds connecting to their plans for a new Lower Thames Crossing. We are also working with Southeastern railways, who have supported our Hop Aboard! programme as part of their Rail 200 celebrations. The festival only can work with the support and contributions of our partners as well as our small, dedicated and brilliant team.
What inspired you to make the entire festival free to attend?
Estuary 2025 is essentially a love letter to the Thames Estuary. We want as many people to be able to experience it as possible and recognise that cost of living can make it really hard for people to spend even a small amount of money on an arts experience. We are a not-for-profit organisation with charitable purposes, so this is our way of making it easier for people who wouldn’t normally attend an arts event by removing barriers to access. On our website we have listed information from our travel partners Southeastern and c2c so that people can access discounted train and bus tickets. Of course, if anyone wants to donate to support our future programmes, we would be very happy to encourage that too!
What are you hoping your audiences will take away from their experience?
Well, this is quite a simple one really – a profoundly life-changing experience!! That may sound a bit grandiose, but we had emails from people who have attended previous Estuary Festival events saying just that, and out of the blue too. I hope that everyone who attends has a great time, having taken a trip into the extraordinary, the wild and the weird!
Thanks very much to Thea for giving us a glimpse into what promises to be a really exciting event!
Estuary 2025 runs from Saturday 21 – 29 June. All events are free and some events are pre-bookable with tickets now live. Further information available here.
